My husband, a super-huge Transformers fan, and I went and saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last week. Without wanting to offend too many people, I will say, I cannot stand Michael Bay. I think he's a sell-out who doesn't care about the Transformers fans.

Yes, the movie looked good with lots of good effects; but the story, like the last, had gaping holes in it for me. Mind you, I am a girl and wasn't big into Transformers as a kid, but holes are holes. I don't even need to know the history to know things didn't make sense. Thus, I can completely understand why my husband and other real fans would have been disappointed.

small SPOILER ALERT: The girl "robot" looked like something from Terminator not Transformers. She had flesh, how does that transform?

The twin robots were offensive in many ways. I know if I were black, I would have been offended at the stereotypical garbage that was spewing from their mouths. As a parent, who would have brought my son if he'd been older, I am offended by the fact that they were using unnecessarily vulgar language.

Okay, now here's some of my personal beef:

I CANNOT STAND action movies that try to be love stories (aka Speed). If my life is in danger and I've just been through hell, I'm not making caddy jokes at the end about love or anything else for that matter. If I'm there with my parents and a girl who I can't even tell I love you, guess who I care about at the end? My parents. I mean it's pretty obvious by the fact that he wouldn't let his dad come because he didn't want him to get hurt but he tells her, yeah come on.

I also don't like set-ups, like the one with John Turturro making a big deal about going to the pyramid for no reason other than to set up for the line about robot scrotum.

On a POSITIVE NOTE:

There were funny moments. The "I'm not talking to you for 10 seconds" thing was good. I wish the guy tagging along would have been more comical. As it was, there wasn't a lot of reason for him to be there.

I guess the biggest pro for me is Bumblebee, though my husband didn't like that he's treated like a pet. Optimus Prime's pretty B.A. too.

Today, the world has lost the best artist of my generation, Michael Jackson. It's a shame that so much controversy surrounded his life, but I remember when ...

I remember seeing Moonwalker at school and thinking I was going to marry him. I remember rushing to play his new tapes as soon as I got them, records too. I remember watching him dance in absolute awe of his gifts. I remember singing Man in The Mirror in Choir.

I remember collecting everything I could; things that I still have to this day. In fact, I still have the shirt I am wearing in the picture. I remember wanting to get a Michael Jackson tattoo when I got older. I had the design and everything.

Man, I loved him. I'm truly sad. He will be greatly missed.

A few weeks ago, on our way to Jiggle Jam, we came across a happy surprise at Crown Center in Kansas City. A Lego Exhibit! Specifically art made from Legos by artist Nathan Sawaya.

Now, that may not seem like the biggest deal except that my husband is a Lego collector and is obsessed with the "art" of building. So this was like me just happening upon a free Pearl Jam concert--HUGE!!!


If you are in the KC area, the exhibit is going on until September 7th and is free! Here's a couple of our photos, not the best, but ours none the less.




The above was my favorite. It was more intricate, I thought.


Had to throw this in, it's actually from Jiggle Jam, but it's my son playing with Legos.

With the 4th coming up, I thought I'd share some fun crafts for kids along with some other, non-Independence Day crafts.

Star-Spangled Wavers- Now these are easy, but I think the kids would love em and, if nothing else, they would be good in pictures. Hey, scrapbookers have to think of these things.

While I've been aware of sites where you can read books for free on-line, I haven't paid too much attention to them. I'm big on libraries and the old fashion idea of reading...with an actual book in hand. Frankly, I stare at a computer screen too often to want to read anything of real substance this way. I do, however, read blogs and forums, anything that can be done relatively quickly.

So, that being said Google books does offer free books, more importantly to me, they have some craft books. These are great for referencing once you have to take the real thing back to the library.

Titles include, The Michaels Book of Arts & Crafts and The New Book of Image Transfer just to name a couple.

Here's their complete list of craft books. Of course they have all kinds of books of every subject as well.

I decided to do a shirt card for my husband for Father's Day so I'm hoping my husband isn't reading this. I found this great Origami tutorial here or just hit play below.


Now she does this on a small scale, but I took the measurements and increased by about 2 inches. Basically, I started with a 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, folded it and then followed her instructions for one half of the paper so that mine would be a folding card.

Here are some variations on this idea:


I found this one on one of my favorite Scrapbooking sites, Two Peas in a Bucket. I like that it has sleeves and a bit more detail.


This was made by Southern Bliss. If you want to ditch the tie, buttons make a great addition.

I found a new site that I'm loving! I've actually blogged about Crafty Nest before, but I just can't get enough. Check out some sample posts and bookmark her for sure. She rocks!

Postcard “tapestry” tutorial. This could just as easily work for photos or any kind of memorabilia.

faux capiz shell lampshade tutorial

Handmade stencils tutorial

Hanging Jar Lights- Super easy, but with big effects. You could use a wide array of jars and some wire.

Pants hangers + drawer pull picture hangers. This would be nice because the pics could easily be switched out and with a rapidly growing baby boy, I am looking for something I can keep updated quickly.

Wooden tissue box cover "transformed from eyesore to mod"

Staying on the art theme for a minute, I thought I'd share some of my pics from our last visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum and my favorite, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art here in Kansas City, MO.

I do a lot of posts on crafts, but I haven't focused too much on arts. However, I was looking over on Free People's blog and it might have persuaded me to do so. Here's just a taste of some of the things I, personally, found inspiring:

This is Kelburn Castle in Scotland, which in June 2007 was partially painted by the Sao Paolo Crew, who are Brazilian graffiti artists.

I love this because I am constantly saying to my husband that the world should be more fun. My favorite part is, by far, the girl's face at the top. Even if you don't like this type of art, you have to admire it's uniqueness.

Of course there's tons of examples of unique things that can be done with old windows. I just found this at Crafty Nest and it made me think about my attempt.


I believe she said the window was broken and the wallpaper samples she used were free. You can't beat that.

Okay, here's my version:

The window was actually left here by the previous owners. So it too was free! It was originally pure white. I did all the aging. I then used mulberry paper (glued on with eggs whites) and dried roses. I heard the egg whites worked well for such a project in some book and they did.

My plan is that it will go in my green house when I get around to decorating out there.

I made the following shadow boxes as a gift for my sister on her B-day. These are her grand kids.





I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. I know I worked hard on them.

Please feel free to give me feedback. You know these could make great gifts for Grandpas and father's alike on Father's day too.

If you're one of the few who haven't seen it already, here's the Twilight New Moon Trailer. Now, here's what I have to say about it: I liked Jacob better than Edward in the books, but was skeptical that the actor, Taylor Lautner, would be able to pull off such a sexy character. That is until I saw the trailer. Just see the pic below and know that my doubts are gone.


Now, that being said, I am super surprised that they show Jacob turn to a wolf in the trailer. In the book, this was something that was supposed to be a surprise. Glad I read the book first because I liked not knowing what was going to happen.

I love the idea of garden stepping stones with my sons foot prints. I've even considered putting his prints inside my husband's print. Here's a great page with lots of examples.

Of course we all see the kits with dragon tears, marbles, and mosaic glass. Don't forget you can also paint, include pictures of loved ones, which I may do in memory of my father.



Also, step outside the mold like with this leaf impression.




My favorite is probably Footprints in the Sand Stepping Stone because it has the poem embedded.


Another idea I loved was a personalized windshield cover with child's art work. Supposedly you can get these at the Dollar store. Momready elaborates:

If you want to get fancy, you can add photos and scrapbook embellishments. Just make sure to avoid putting them in the folds of your cover to protect your design.

Finally, I think anything with photos is always good. Here's a couple different suggestions:

Over on Parenting.com I found some great ideas for kids treats under their recipe section. This has recently become an issue with my ever-growing picky eater.

I also love their cake section. I just have to find a way to take this castle idea and turn into a boy castle and I'm set.

They do have tons of boy cakes too, of course. There's rockets and bulldozers and tons of unique ideas.

They had a cool idea for a little St. Patrick's day activity, though it could just as easily work for Father's day too:

1) Design thumbprint shamrocks: Dip your child's thumb in green paint, and make three prints close together on white paper. Create a whole field of 'em!
2) Cut a paper plate in half and have kids finger-paint a rainbow on it. Then shape a pot of gold out of construction paper, and tape it to the end of the rainbow.